I notice that Barry customarily uses a couple of bars of a scale -- say an A dominant Lydian scale -- to show what he's talking about. That's fine, but do his students KNOW where these runs come from? Are they taken from specific dominant Lydian scales examples? Or does he just make them up on the spot? If I'm supposed to know about them, I'd like to know where to look. Thanks.
If you just start to go through the PDF's and absorb his lines as written, you will find over time that you will hear them all over his examples. Like you, I was confused/amazed at first, but it's really no different than any other improviser. Even the Coltrane, Montgomery, Parkers of the world do very little "making up on the spot". It's just all little phrases that have been practiced over time that make it into one's playing. You may string two ideas together that you haven't put together before, or mess around with note placement, accent or how a phrase lies on a certain beat, but nobody just has endless original lines that they make up on the spot.
If you have a background in Rock/Blues like me and many others, you're probably listened to Clapton, SRV, etc. Over time you can hear the same ideas used in many solos all over the place. Jazz lines are the same, they just take a while to develop an ear for. I've been trying for many years and it's a work in progress.
Hoping for an answer from you, KurtinAustin. Thanks very much. I wasn't really asking for an analysis of what "on the spot" means in jazz (or in any kind of) improvising. But you've given a very nice, on-the-spot-improvised explanation of what improvising really is. So Barry is improvising the examples of e.g. B7b5 altered sounds as compared to Cm dorian sounds, and it's worthwhile listening and comparing the two examples. But it is NOT worthwhile to try to figure out where in the Stepping Stones or Essential Lessons he spelled out the dorian or altered runs that he just showed us. Just listen and learn, don't try to dig up the original scales.
Right?
Yeah, that's pretty much the approach I take. I used to drive myself crazy looking at the transcription and trying to explain certain notes that "rub" against a chord (like a major 7th over a dominant chord, which is the only tone you're supposed to avoid). In the end it's all enclosures or neighbor/passing tones that sound good because they aren't emphasized in the line.
It helps me to always know where the 3rd and 7th's are in a particular chord on the fingerboard. Those tones are critical in outlining changes. All of the Charlie Parker stuff Barry teaches center around the 7th of the ii resolving to the 3rd of the V.